Kraminik is a British electronic dance style band who will be releasing their second album shortly. The style of the band’s music references all manners of folk, electronic, cinematic themes and other artistic flourishes, making them a band of great appeal to myself and other designers. Understandably so, they submitted a contest to 99designs, complete with a brief for prospective designers to help craft the image that would comprise the identity of their eclectic second album, “Double Agent”

Below is my submission for the contest.

It is worth noting that the Kramnik logo was already in play and designed by the client, but everything else is original artwork (or altered photography from my collection) used to design a cover that is clean in concept but also shows hints of mechanical integration and even chaos. These sorts of themes are prevalent in the songs that comprise “Double Agent” and as such, I thought it would be interesting to present a scene from nature (a majestic tree) growing in its environment while being tangled up and confused into these differernt black jagged circuits that turn it into something different entirely.

The silhoutte of a complex, futuristic urban environment is also referenced and to help ground the design, a burst of kinetic energy appears to rip the design up the seams just behind the centrally placed tree figure. The result is a chaotic combination of nature, urban and other dark elements that mirror the style of the band themselves. On the surface they may appear one way, but under the roots, there is much more to be explored and that was the objective and idea I had in mind with this album cover.

In a later blog post, I’ll touch on some of the elements I employed and thought processes I used to get to this solution.

In the meantime, please do check out Kramnik online at www.kramnik.dj for more of their awesome music